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TITLE I - Troubled Assets Relief Program

Sec. 122. INCREASE IN STATUTORY LIMIT ON THE PUBLIC DEBT. (3 Comments) subscribe to the comments feed

Subsection (b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and inserting $11,315,000,000,000.

3 comments on Sec. 122. INCREASE IN STATUTORY LIMIT ON THE PUBLIC DEBT.

  • Copied and pasted below is 31 USC s 3101. I'm not a mathematician or a banker and I suck at numbers, but, does this say that - in addition to the $700 billion guaranteed by the Secretary of the Treasury - the US Government may incur an additional $3,131,000,000,000 ($11,315,000,000,000 - $8,814,000,000,000) [that is trillions, right?]? If not, can someone explain to this layperson the purpose of this increase?

    § 3101. Public debt limit
    a) In this section, the current redemption value of an obligation issued on a discount basis and redeemable before maturity at the option of its holder is deemed to be the face amount of the obligation.
    (b) The face amount of obligations issued under this chapter and the face amount of obligations whose principal and interest are guaranteed by the United States Government (except guaranteed obligations held by the Secretary of the Treasury) may not be more than $8,184,000,000,000, outstanding at one time, subject to changes periodically made in that amount as provided by law through the congressional budget process described in Rule XLIX [1] of the Rules of the House of Representatives or otherwise.
    (c) For purposes of this section, the face amount, for any month, of any obligation issued on a discount basis that is not redeemable before maturity at the option of the holder of the obligation is an amount equal to the sum of—
    (1) the original issue price of the obligation, plus
    (2) the portion of the discount on the obligation attributable to periods before the beginning of such month (as determined under the principles of section 1272(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 without regard to any exceptions contained in paragraph (2) of such section).

    posted by Julie Stucky at October 2, 2008

  • I'm no lawyer, but it does seem to say that the debt ceiling is now $3.131 trillion higher, not including the $700 billion that the treasury secretary guarantees. "(except guaranteed obligations held by the Secretary of the Treasury)". I am assuming that the assets controlled or purchased by the secretary under TARP are "guaranteed obligations". I hope I'm wrong, that's a 33% increase in public debt.

    posted by Mike H. at October 2, 2008

  • That is one powerful sentence, raising the debt by over 3 trillion dollars!

    If the new debt limit is $11,315,000,000,000 and there are 138 million taxpayers, then that is almost $82,0000 of debt for every taxpayer.

    What are we getting for this extra debt? Oh yes, more debt.

    posted by Barbara B. from Winchester, MA at October 3, 2008
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